Gov.-elect Hobbs says she will stop construction of shipping container wall on border
Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs says she is going to halt any further work placing storage containers on the state’s southern border.
Hobbs has called the move from current Gov. Doug Ducey a political stunt that is not providing an effective barrier.
Ducey is asking a federal judge to declare a 60-foot wide strip of land along the border where the containers are located as Arizona property.
Hobbs has sided with the claims from the Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Forest Service that placing the containers there is a trespass on federally owned land.
"It's not land that's our land to put things on. That's one problem. The containers aren't working. There's many pictures of people climbing over them," Hobbs said.
There is no decision from Hobbs on whether she will take them down as that could require permission from the state Legislature, which has a Republican majority.
"It's a political stunt. It's a visual barrier that is not actually providing an effective barrier to entry, and I think a waste of taxpayer dollars," she added.
While the governor’s office put a $6 million price tag for filling a nearly 4,000 foot gap near Yuma, a stretch being constructed in Cochise County could set taxpayers back another $95 million.
